CBS is developing its first black daytime TV series in 35 years

Sheila Ducksworth

CBS Studios

CBS is developing a TV series about a wealthy family that could become the first daytime TV drama with an all-Black cast in decades.

The project is titled Portals It follows the lives of a wealthy black family living in a luxurious, gated community.

The show will be produced by the CBS Studios/NAACP Production Project in partnership with P&G Studios, a division of Procter & Gamble. Portals It will be written by Emmy Award-winning daytime veteran Michelle Valjean (The bold and the beautiful), who will also act as showrunner. Val Jean has also written over 2,000 episodes of daytime television.

It was NBC's last short-lived black daytime soap Generations, which launched in 1989 as a half-hour drama and is said to be the first American series to center around a black family since its inception. Also, the Fox drama was a huge hit in 2015 empire Some considered it a soap opera, even though it aired in prime time.

“Portals “It will be everything we love about daytime drama, with a fresh, fresh perspective,” said CBS Studios NAACP Project President Sheila Ducksworth (pictured above). “This series will revitalize traditionally underserved audiences, with the potential to be a groundbreaking moment in broadcast television. With multi-dimensional characters, exciting stories and Black culture front and center, Portals It will have impactful representation, which is one of the main focuses of the project. I'm excited to develop this project with CBS and P&G, two of the longest-standing and most passionate champions of daytime television, and the NAACP, whose enduring commitment to Black voices and artists is powerful and inspiring.

Launch any new A daytime soap would actually break a decades-long streak in which the genre has fallen out of favor due to declining ratings amid competition from streaming. The last time a broadcaster launched a new TV series was in 1999 (NBC Emotions), while CBS's last new series was The bold and the beautifulwhich first appeared in 1987.

There are currently only three daytime soap operas left on the air: The young and the restless, Bold and beautiful And Public Hospital (with Days of our lives On the peacock). In 2011, ABC made headlines for canceling two long-running series, all of my children And One life to live. Two years later, Prospect Park subsequently attempted to relaunch the series online. But CBS recently renewed the 51-year-old The young and the restless For an additional four years.

Duckworth and Val Jean will executive produce Portals Along with Leon Russell, Derek Johnson and Kimberly Dobriner.